Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia

Judiciary awaits feedback from parliament

Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia said this today when presenting to the Government house the 2016 Annual Judges’ report.

The compilation and presentation of the judges’ annual reports is a requirement of the constitution.

Contents of the report will not be disclosed until it is presented in parliament, but Sir Salamo said one of the things that is being addressed in the report, which was not done in previous reports, is the identification of some of the impediments that exist within the administration of the judiciary.

More judges for Lae

Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia made this known after the swearing in ceremony of one judge and four acting judges at the Government house today.

With the new judges sworn in, he said the judiciary is confident it will comfortably address the backlog of cases and hopes to dispose Election Petition cases by June next year. 

Among those sworn in today was the former Public Solicitor and a committal court magistrate.

Former Public Solicitor and now Justice Jim Wala Tamate will remain at Waigani. He will assist Justice David Cannings in the Human Rights track.

Judges in human rights workshop

The two-day workshop began today after a similar one was held last week for magistrates in the lower judiciary.

Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia, in opening the workshop today, said two issues he hopes will be addressed are skills in dealing with human rights cases and the philosophical underpinnings of human rights.

“There is a wealth of case laws on human rights since Independence on the application, enforcement and protection of human rights under our domestic legal framework.

Refugee application adjourned

The application briefly came before Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia today before it was adjourned to next Wednesday for directions.

The application was filed by way of an appeal against the court’s decision on November 7, where the court refused to grant orders restoring services at the decommissioned site and prevent the refugees’ forceful removal.

However, the Chief Justice questioned the mode in which the application was filed.

Civil cases increasing with economic growth: Chief justice

During the re-appointment of two judges of the Federal Court of Australia to the Supreme Court of PNG, Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia explained that with more foreign and local companies increasing investment comes the rise in number of civil and commercial cases registered with the Courts as well.

And as the years go by, some of these cases have become very complex, needing specialised judges to hear them.

73 law students undergo workshop

The workshop is designed to introduce the student’s aspects of modern commercial litigation practice with the final day devoted to aspects of modern criminal law practice and ethics.

The 2017 LTI students now join over 400 other students who have successfully completed the workshop since 2013.

The workshop is also to meet a need identified by the Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia for persons entering the legal profession to be better equipped to serve the needs of Papua New Guinea’s developing economy.

Court: Serve Chief Magistrate documents

Lawyers representing Prime Minister Peter O’Neill filed an urgent application yesterday morning, to ask the Supreme Court to stay the dismissal of the National Court review, pending the appeal.

They went before Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia this morning after directions were issued yesterday for court documents to be served on the Solicitor General and the state, including the Chief Magistrate.

Judiciary releases new election petition rules

These new rules replace the 2002 election petition rules.

By instrument dated the 26 June, 2017, Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia determined that as of July 3, 2017, the Election Petition rules 2002 ceased.

And pursuant to rule 2(2) of the National Court Election Petition rules 2017, the Chief Justice reappointed Justice Collin Makail as the Judge Administrator of the National Court Elections Track.

A security cost fee of K5000 remains for all election petition matters with a filing fee of K1000.

Option of Election petition remains

Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia refused an application filed by James Yoka Ekip and Simon Sanagke over the Electoral Commission’s decision in appointing Paul Goema and Andrew Kerowa as the Returning Officer and Assistant Returning Officer for the Hagen Open seat respectively.

They asked the court on Thursday through their lawyer to stay the decision of the National Court, when it refused to allow a Judicial review to be done into the appointment of Goema and Kerowa by Electoral Commissioner Patilias Gamato.

Chief Justice visits Bereina station

His visit today to Bereina was the first for a local Chief Justice after the last expatriate head of the Judiciary visited the area some 43 years ago.

For the locals there, it was history for them to have the country's Chief Justice visits their district as he has not visited any other districts in the Central province. 

Sir Salamo's visit was to inspect the area where the current court facility sits and for planning to go ahead in upgrading the facility.